trivium91

Hey guys im wondering if the bike I have is any good? What I was reading about 29" tires seemed to appeal to me and so far im loving it. I find them a lot more smooth compared to my older 26" bike. At any rate I picked up the bike for $400 CAD lightly used. Since the frame is the same as their more $$$ bikes I figure it would be good to build on no? I found the promax hydraulics really suck and just bought a shimano M355 kit for $100 which I feel you cant go wrong. Mostly riding on trails/gravel roads and pavement, no jumps or anything crazy and I don't ride everyday. I wanted something nice to take down trails when I go camping since quads are not allowed in most provincial parks. I guess my main question is, is this bike worth upgrading such as getting a new fork down the road. Also I was looking at the Shimano SLX drivetrain kits for around $300 on chain reaction. Would something like this be worth it? My only thought is that the wheels and frame are the same as their more expensive ones, after I spend that money it would bring me to about $1000 and I would end up with a niccer bike than the Karakorum elite. Not to mention that even the better bikes all have the crappy suntour forks unless you spend over $1000, mine has the Lowest XTC-HLO but I don't see the XTM-HLO and the small upgrades for each model much of an upgrade especially if I get a better fork off the hop it would be better to get the cheapest right?


for refrenc thiss long term

marcw

I did the same thing with my 2011 Karakorum. The only stock items are the forks,handle bars and frame. Everything else if xt quality from chain reaction or merlin. I am very happy with my bike. I did it slowly over a course of a few years when I find great deals on components or the components wore out. I would have upgraded the fork, but I bought qr rims and i do not want to replace wheels and forks since my wheels are 1 year old.

Ronsonic 

Then maybe one of these?

marcw

Thanks, but I do not see the big gain I will get from this fork compared to my fork. Similar spring, my fork has 100 more grams of weight.

trivium91

Yup good stuff guys thanks. The frame is slightly too big but some adjustment's have fixed that, and actually prefer it Since I not hunched over as much and the handlebars a bit higher. For reference im 5 6” and the bike is a medium which for my height would go either way small or medium…my old frame was a 17”. I was actually looking at the recon fork and that will be my next upgrade. I picked up the shimano 355’s for $100 CAD on amazon and they are well worth the money, they are 100 times easier to bleed and change the pads than the promax deciphers. The reason I got them was because the Karakorum elite were sold stock with these. To be honest I think most of the hydraulic brakes are overkill anyways since my old shimano v brakes on my old bike could still cause over the handlebar braking. The only issue I had with the 355’s is that since they are straight from the shimano Malaysia factory cutting out the middle man and the markup they are designed for bikes in asia where the front brake is on the right hand side and rear on the left…it could be changed but too lazy. I actually prefer it this way since I have a Suzuki quad that is setup this way, so in my case I left it.